Boys Update

I have tried to keep the boys busy this summer. Normally we would go to California and visit my sisters, but being in my third trimester it's best to stay home and not have my ankles swell!  So we are facing the heat this summer and keeping the boys active so they are not wrestling and fighting with each other constantly. I signed them up for swim lessons and both are doing awesome. Brice is in level 4 and has  to swim the length of the pool multiple times he's doing amazing with it. He's learning all the different strokes. He says his favorite is the butterfly!  Nathan has really grown from swimming last year.  He can swim/float on his back, forwards with "ice cream scoops" and swim under the water. He started wearing googles, but has since decided he doesn't like them.  Nathan also started a 10 week karate program this summer.  He really seems to enjoy going  and looks very cute in his karate outfit doing his moves.  My parents gave us their old Wii and games and the boys really seem to enjoy playing that. It keeps them moving and gets some energy out. I love watching them play Just Dance. Brice has mastered boxing while Nathan has dominated tennis. We have checked off a lot of boxes on our Summer Fun List.
✔️ Swim lessons
✔️ Sleep over grandma and papas
✔️ Play the iPad
✔️ Go to Urban Jungle
✔️ Build a fort
✔️ Sleep on the couch
✔️ Join The summer reading program
✔️ Karate
✔️ Go to the movies (Lego Batman and Despicable Me 3)

Baby Girl Update

On July 17th, 2017 I will be 34  weeks pregnant. Below are the good and the bad. Although nothing is really bad, just some minor setbacks to being pregnant with a third child!

Good
Baby is  healthy
Her heart rate is great
I have gained the least amount of weight with her
She is a mover
All her ultrasound look great
It is looking like she will be my smallest baby
Ultrasound is showing she has a lot of hair. Perfect for Bows!

The not so good
She is still breach
I have mildly low platelets
Sleeping is difficult
I am having restless legs with her
Some varicose vein's have shown up
I am eating Tums like candy

Memorial Day Cookout

We had a cookout with friends and there families on Memorial Day. It always seems to be my favorite cookout. It's hot but the pool still feels nice and everyone is freshly out of school and excited. I love seeing the kids run around playing and it's great having adult conversations!

Steph's Baby Shower

 I took a weekend trip to go to Colorado for Steph's baby girl shower Darren stayed home the weekend with the boys and have their own fun. It was great to get up there in the cooler weather and spend time with great friends.  I stayed at Kristin and Chris's house which was very comfortable and very quiet. Kristin put on a great baby shower for Steph and Steph's baby got spoiled with a lot of great gifts.  I got to see their houses and have some great food and great conversation. It is pretty cool that our baby girls will only be 6 weeks apart!

Summer Break 2017

 It is officially hot and summer break is upon us. The boys have either been playing wonderfully together or wrestling and calling each other names.
Brice 1st grade recap

• Got academic achievements each quarter for first grade.
• Had two field trips I got to chaperone. Went to the science Museum and went to the zoo. 
• Made his first shoebox diorama and had to do the habitat of a walrus.
•  Has excelled in reading. And is doing very well with the math.
•  Ms. Newsom said she wished all of her students would be doing as academically well as Brice.
•  He loves that I come into volunteer in the class. And I love being able to volunteer in class. 
•  He did 34 laps at his school fun run. 
•  He mostly had white clip behavior. White is where everybody starts for the day if you go down to blue that's bad but if you go up to green that's good.  We had handful of blue clip days mostly due to chatting. One day he was seeing who was taller and they decided to stand on chairs and see who is taller. 
• He still needs to work on his hand writing. 
•  Families got to go to a nice end of year first grade breakfast. 
•  One of my favorite first grade quotes from Brice is " William is moving to California. That means I am now the smartest kid in my class."

 Nathan's preschool recap

• Has gotten so much better at writing his first name.
•  Is very articulate and is not afraid to use large words. 
•  Teacher says he likes to sing a lot in class. 
•  Has made a lot of friends in his class. Likes to play with the twin boys Jaden and Bryson and his friend Zane at recess. 
• I got to volunteer on water day and see all the kids have fun. 
• Nathan loves when I come into volunteer. And I love going in tovolunteering. Preschoolers are so innocent and sweet. 
• The preschoolers put on a very cute end of year performance. Nathan memorized all three songs including their dance moves. 
• Nathan absorbs a lot of information and asks good questions and remembers.  His brain is a little sponge. 

We made a list of things that we would like to do over the summer things like summer reading, a tent in the downstairs, Sleepover at grandma,  birthday party for Brice, swim lessons, playing with friends, iPad time, a sleepover in the living room, movie nights, going to the movies etc.  Nathan took his early kindergarten readiness test and we will find out in a week if he goes to kindergarten next year at Gateway. I think he is more than ready and will be going.  He is very excited to be a gator like his brother.  There's already been a lot of swimming this summer,  lots of playing with the neighborhood kids and is already finished their first round of swim lessons. Brice is a level 4 and they are already teaching him butterfly, freestyle, backstroke and he's picking up on it pretty well. Nathan was hesitant at first in our pool even though he was swimming last year, but since we've been in it almost every day he's right back to where he was jumping and swimming.

Hawaii

Darren and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary a little early in Kauai and it was amazing! My parents watched the boys for 8 days so we could go. The flight felt a little long and my ankles were swollen when we arrived, but it was a small price to pay to sit and relax by the beach!  We stayed at the Kia Kea resort which is a small resort but very quaint and relaxing. It was a small walk to poipu beach and had walkways all along the beach.  We rented a car and got to go see Waimea Canyon and the waterfalls. We enjoyed the resorts lawn and pool. Got to see the endangered Hawaiian sea turtle and endangering Hawaiian monk seal's which are out almost every day on the beach. We thought they came out every day but apparently they are only there every once in a while so we lucked out.  We drove to the north side of the islands  and stop to see the lighthouse their but it was awfully rainy so we didn't get to do much. The whole drive was pretty much on the coast it was very pretty. We enjoyed the Kauai coffee tour.  One day was particularly rainy so we went shopping at a couple of their  shopping centers.  We went to a really awesome luau at a family garden and they had great food and a great show.  We also did a catamaran snorkel barbecue trip which started out great and the snorkeling was pretty cool Darren got to snorkel with the endangered turtles and we saw a ton of spinner dolphins and bottleneck dolphins. But after the snorkeling after sitting and bobbing darre got seasick.  A nice lady gave him something to help and it did.  We could not see The Nepali coast because it was too rough of seas over there so we saw the southside which was still very pretty. Darren did runs most mornings while I sat in the relaxing lunch chairs and actually finished an entire book! It was a great trip and I'm so glad we got to go and reconnect a little!  We would FaceTime with the boys at grandma and papas and Nathan was so sweet and would just burst into tears when he saw me.  Brice was a very good big brother  and would try to hug him and tell him that I'd be home soon and try to get him to play something else to get his mind off of it.  Seeing my boys and missing that made it easier to leave the beautiful island.

28 weeks with baby girl!

I have hit my third trimester! This pregnancy has been going the fastest for me. I have been having much different  symptoms and with the boys. I definitely have restless leg syndrome at night and my right lower lip will go numb or tingly  every once and a while.  I still get nauseous from time to time but overall they do smaller meals throughout the day I do fine.  She's already gone on a couple adventures one to Hawaii and to Colorado! We had a second ultrasound and she was very active and gave us some good pictures! The ultrasound tech kept saying how cute she was :) I had my glucose test done and I am not diabetic or have low iron, but I do have mildly low platelets which they will keep an eye on. I can feel her move all the time which I love. The boys have been able to see and feel her kick. Nathan is still obsessed with baby girl and touching my stomach all the time and talking to her. Darren found a cute side table that I repainted with chalk paint to put books and other things in for her room. I also repainted the crib with white chalk paint because it got faded in the garage. I also finished the pictures for her room. Just need to hang pictures, put up her wallpaper and put some clothes away! Darren and I are so excited to see and hold baby girl! Now we just need a name!!!

Spring Break 2017

The boys are off in March for two weeks for spring break since school is modified year-round.  It is hard to keep them entertained all day, and I hear a lot of I'm bored.  So far we have gone to the Legoland discovery Center with friends, had dinner at our friends the Lindros, planted pumpkin seeds and some sunflower seeds with hopes that they will grow, visited the library, went to Bahama bucks when they opened for a snow cone and smoothie, had a picnic in the park with Grandma, boys went swimming even though the pool is pretty darn cold, had friends and neighbors over to swim and barbecue,  had a St. Patrick's Day dinner at my parents house, and let the boys stay up late watching movies. The boys also find it a very special treat to sleep on the floor at night we normally only let them on the weekends, but they've been able to since they have been on break.

Good Bye Renaissance

My nice part time job ended unexpectedly when I got me laid off in the beginning of March. I was told there was not enough work for me to do, but it definitely had politics involved. I'm looking at the bright side and excited that I'll have more time to spend with baby girl when she arrives.

Trips and Holidays 2016

We had a couple nice trips in 2016.

We visited our friends Steph and Brandon at their house in San Diego and stayed with them for the July 4 weekend. We got lots of beach time and some great catching up. It was a very relaxing weekend.

We took a trip up to Prescott into the Pinetree's to get away for a weekend and have some cooler weather. And my cooler weather it was pretty cold at night. We stayed in a house that was deep in the woods so the stars looked amazing at night and you could hear even a whisper through the trees. The house was near the lake in Preskett and the four of us actually got the canoe together. The boys were so worried about falling in the lake they sat so nice and still while Darren and I paddled them around the lake.  The only downfall to our trip was for some reason the fire alarms kept going off both nights in the middle of the night. The boys got to make a little log fort and Walker got to come and enjoy all the smells of the forest.  Dear would come through yard at dusk.  And the boys got enjoy Smore's and hot cocoa by the fire.

For October break we went back to California and stayed with our friends Jenny and Steve and their children. We went to brick or treat at Legoland one night and let the kids go to candy in their costumes. Then went back to Legoland the next day to enjoy the park.  We stayed a couple nights with Janey and Steve and a couple nights at Legoland hotel. Then we ventured up to Laguna Beach  for a few nights and stayed at a hotel on the beach and got to enjoy the sunset over the water every night. After we left Laguna we traveled up to LA to visit my sisters and got to hang out with the boys cousin Riley.

For Thanksgiving my sisters came to town and we had Thanksgiving at my parents house. As usual there was a puzzle to be made, delicious food and a nice family time.

Christmas was quiet for us which was nice it was just the four of us.  On Christmas day we had grandmother and grandpa Jack over for a Christmas dinner.

For New Year's Kyla Jake and Riley were in town and they  stayed with us to celebrate the new year. We also had a Hulihee family over to bring in the new year.